Butterfly sanctuary expected to be plowed over for Trump's border wall

December 7, 2018 / 1:10 PM
/ CBS News

House GOP urges border wall funding

MISSION, Texas -- A protected habitat of butterflies along the Rio Grande is expected to be plowed over to clear the way for President Trump's border wall after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed a challenge by environmental groups. The justices this week upheld a District Court ruling to allow the Trump administration to bypass 28 federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act, to be waived for southern border wall construction.

Three organizations, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, had sued the government, claiming construction of the wall would harm plants, wildlife and other species such as fairy shrimp and the Quino checkerspot butterfly.

Hundreds of thousands of butterflies housed at the nonprofit National Butterfly Center will be in jeopardy after about 70 percent of the center's land winds up on the other side of the border wall, according to Marianna Wright, the executive director of the center.

The center's 100-acre sanctuary near Mission, Texas, is home to at least 200 species of butterfly, and serves as critical habitat for the migration of the threatened Monarch butterfly and endangered species including the ocelot and jaguarundi, The Intercept reports.

Border Patrol agents told her construction at the center is expected to begin in February, she said.

Mr. Trump has made the border wall a centerpiece of his immigration policies. The president has threatened a government shutdown unless lawmakers provide $5 billion in funding.

"We have a president who purports to be all about law and order, and he and the Supreme Court are now supporting the waiver of all laws that get in the way of his agenda," Wright said. "That should be an affront to all Americans."